By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Carter County Fiscal Court met in regular session last Monday, May 20, to approve various expenditures, including a disbursement of opioid abatement funds. The court voted to serve as a pass-through for the CDBG Grant for Genesis for $200,000, voted to authorize judge executive Brandon Burton to sign three $1,000 payments to FIVCO for administration, and voted – with one dissenting vote – to approve disbursing $80,000 dollars of the opioid settlement money to the Olive Hill Center for Arts and Heritage. The last came after discussion with members of Olive Hill Center for Arts and Heritage and their consultant Renee Parsons.
Many local governments who have been awarded money from the opioid settlement fund have been hesitant to use that money, due to lack of clear guidance from the state.
“There was some worry that it wasn’t an approved option for this funding,” Parsons told the council about the grant she had written for the Center.
At the meeting Parson showed the court an email she received from the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) saying that the proposal was an approved use of said funds.
Parson explained that a rewrite had been necessary and, due to the grants running in cycles, there was no allocation for buildings. Because of this the funds requested were changed to reflect salaries.
The next cycle, Parsons said, would be for buildings and capital investments. County attorney Brian Bayes said he believed this was an appropriate use for the money, and it was his belief that before the next fiscal court meeting the county would be approved to use the same pool of funds for a K-9 officer.
In other business, Carter County Library Director Diane Wingert spoke with the court and requested additional funds to help support the library and its programs. Last year fiscal court approved $25,000 dollars for the library, and this year Wingert requested an increase of $2,000, which raised the court’s support of the library to $27,000 for the libraries in Olive Hill and Grayson. The court approved the additional funding by a unanimous vote.
Other items on the court’s agenda included the status of three roads currently under county maintenance. It was decided that an actual distance of the road designated Mabry Lane was needed before the road was brought into county maintenance, and the court voted to begin the process to take Leatherwood Fork out of county maintenance. It was also determined by the court that further research was needed to start the process of taking Hilton Cemetery Road out of county maintenance.
While in executive session the court discussed personnel and possible litigation, but no action was taken. After discussion in executive session, the decision was made to purchase a John Deere 85 excavator for $132,000, the purchase price including a four-year warranty. James Logan was also hired part time in the solid waste department, and Tony Richmond was hired at $18/hour in the road department. The court also approved beginning the process to take bids for road materials and making a purchase offer of $275,000 for the Jim Davis property near the courthouse.
The court also approved payment of their portion of the East Park interlocal agreement and decided to extend Carpenter Way Road an additional 302 feet.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
